Lapid says IDF exemption of ultra-Orthodox ‘was always unfair, now it’s impossible’
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee during a debate over the ultra-Orthodox draft bill, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid says that lawmakers must remember “that we are in an emergency.”
“Only a week has passed since the law before us was passed by the Knesset plenum. This week there were already 16 funerals of IDF soldiers,” he says, adding that Hamas and Hezbollah “do not differentiate between the periphery and the center and do not differentiate between secular and religious and ultra-Orthodox.”
“They want to kill us all, and therefore we all need to mobilize to defend ourselves,” he declares.
“The current situation, where there are tens of thousands of young people exempt from conscription was always unfair, now it is impossible. Impossible on the ethical level, impossible on the operational level,” Lapid continues, calling for “a pointed and substantive discussion” leading to a bill that does not discriminate “between blood and blood.”
“The eyes of the fighters and the eyes of their families are in this room and if they make wrong decisions here, people will die. If the army is not given the tools it needs, people will die. If we engage in political considerations here instead of security considerations, people will die,” he concludes, calling for lawmakers to pass a bill quickly.
“The army needs the soldiers now,” he says.